Brian Jacques
| Brian Jacques | |
|---|---|
Jacques in November 2007
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| Born |
James Brian Jacques 15 June 1939 Liverpool, Lancashire, England |
| Died | 5 February 2011 (aged 71) Liverpool, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Education | St John's School |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Known for | Redwall novel series |
| Home town | Liverpool |
| Spouse(s) | Maureen |
| Children | David Jacques Marc Jacques |
| Parent(s) | James Jacques Ellen Ryan |
| Website | redwall |
James Brian Jacques (/ˈdʒeɪks/, as in "Jakes"; 15 June 1939 – 5 February 2011) was an English writer, best known for his Redwall series of novels and Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series. He also completed two collections of short stories entitled The Ribbajack & Other Curious Yarns and Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales.
Brian Jacques was born in Liverpool on 15 June 1939. His parents were James Alfred Jacques, a haulage contractor, and Ellen Ryan.
Jacques' father, James, was born in Liverpool in 1907. His parents, Thomas Jacques and Ada Smith, moved to Liverpool from the St Helens area in the 1890s. The Jacques family had Lancashire roots; there is no record of them having French ancestry. Ellen Ryan was born in Liverpool in 1908. She came from an Irish family with roots in a number of different Irish counties; her father, Matthew Ryan, was born in County Wexford in 1872. Ellen's mother, Elizabeth "Cissy" McGuinness, was born in Liverpool in 1882.
Jacques grew up in Kirkdale near to the Liverpool Docks. He was known by his middle name, Brian, because his father and a brother were also named James. His father loved literature and read his boy adventure stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, but also The Wind in the Willows with its cast of animals. Jacques showed early writing talent. At age ten, assigned to write an animal story, he wrote about a bird that cleaned a crocodile's teeth. His teacher could not believe that a ten-year-old wrote it, and caned the boy for refusing to admit copying the story. He had always loved to write, but only then did he realize the extent of his abilities. He attended St John's School until age fifteen, when he left school (as was usual at the time) and set out to find adventure as a merchant sailor. His book Redwall was written for his "special friends", the children of the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind, whom he first met while working as a milkman. He began to spend time with the children, reading books to them. However, he became dissatisfied with the state of children's literature, with too much adolescent angst and not enough magic, and eventually began to write stories for them. He is known for the very descriptive style of his novels, which emphasize sound, smell, taste, gravity, balance, temperature, touch, and kinesthetics, not just visual sensations. His work gained acclaim when Alan Durband, his former English teacher (who also taught Paul McCartney and George Harrison), showed it to his (Durband's) own publisher without telling Jacques. Durband told his publishers: "This is the finest children's tale I've ever read, and you'd be foolish not to publish it". Soon after, Jacques was summoned to London to meet with the publishers, who gave him a contract to write the next five books in the series.
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